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Saturday, April 07, 2012

This reviewer is always on the look out for books that take different apologetic issues and put them into bite-sized chunks that a complete beginner can understand and begin interacting with. That task is quite difficult because many authors take concepts and mutilate them in such a way that the beginner would actually be more confused than when they began.

The opportunity was given a while back to review a copy of Stephen McAndrew's new book Why It Doesn't Matter What YOU Believe If It’s Not True. The book is a short read of only 86 pages. The eleven chapters break up the short book into sections that are extremely manageable for those with only spurts of time to read or need time to digest. This format holds much promise to being a great introductory book. But does it come through?

Chapter 1: Introduction
In the introductory chapter McAndrew draws out his intentions of this book. His goal is to explain that there is extreme tension between the post-modern idea of moral relativism and the inner desire of every human being to grant all other humans "human rights". He critiques the current "sound bite" culture and explains that ideas need to be thoroughly investigated. From that, he moves right into establishing that absolute truth does, in fact, exist.

Chapter 2: Footnotes to Plato
The second chapter is quite nice. McAndrew uses it to show the historical progression of absolute truth to relative truth. He begins with Plato and his concept of The Forms and ends with Wittgenstein's ideas of dynamic language. He covers empiricism and logical positivism and shows how they connect between Plato and Wittgenstein. Being able to understand the philosophical cahnge from absolute truth to relative truth helps the reader to better understand from where people are coming when they promote such a theory.

Chapter 3: The Tyranny of Freedom from Absolute Truth
In chapter 3 McAndrew begins his actual critique of the idea that truth is relative. Beginning here and through the rest of the book, he draws heavily upon Orwell's novel 1984 to show the logical consequences of such a theory. He goes into how the idea that truth is relative demands that to change truth, the meaning of words just need to be changed.

Chapter 4: Can We Believe in Universal Human Rights & Moral Relativism Simultaneously?
Next McAndrew shifts from fiction to history. He takes the reader back to Nazi Germany to remind the reader of what happens when a society gets to decide what is true and what is not. In this chapter, he makes the connection between truth in general and moral truth specifically. He shows that anyone who believes that Nazi Germany committed an absolute moral evil cannot affirm relative truth or even relative morality at the same time.

Chapter 5: The Contingency Contradiction
In chapter 5 McAndrew focuses on showing how the idea of truth being relative actually self-destructs. He points out that if truth is dependent upon culture, then that concept, itself, is a relative statement, which then calls even it into question. He also compares the search for metaphysical truth to the search for scientific truth. He observes that no one allows for scientists to ignore evidence- they must draw conclusions about reality based on the evidence. McAndrew states that based on that, no one actually believes in relative truth- they only claim truth is relative when discussing metaphysical ideas...including morality.

Chapter 6: Re-Imagining Reality
Chapter 6 is McAndrew's invitation to imagine what the world would be like if there were no such thing as absolute truth. He begins by explaining that if the reader agrees that absolute truth exists, that it must be grounded in something metaphysical- God. He guides the reader through a few different philosophies that have tried to deny God's existence, and takes them to their logical ends regarding truth. He concludes that the reason that philosophies keep attempting to deny absolute truth (thus are self-defeating) is because of man's stubborn refusal to accept a transcendent foundation for truth (God).

Chapter 7: What Might a Source of the Human Rights Urge Look Like?
In chapter 7 McAndrew shifts to a positive argument for the Christian God from the existence of objective moral truth. He shows how human rights is a direct implication of the doctrines of Christianity. A contrast is drawn between Christian morality and utilitarian morality to show how the desires of men for human rights fits better with Christianity than with a naturalistic view of morality.

Chapter 8: On Hedonism
Next McAndrew proposes a possible motive in the desire to deny absolute truth- individual pleasure without consequences. He appeals to the desires of every person to show how strong such a desire can be. But he turns it upside-down by explaining that it undermines itself as soon as the fulfillment is granted to all people.

Chapter 9: This is My Truth - A la Carte Belief
Chapter 9 builds upon the discussion of hedonism in chapter 8. McAndrew examines the implication of relative truth that everyone is allowed to have their own set of truths- even contradictory ones. Logical consistency and reason take a backseat to the desires of the individual. He also explains that in such a world that it is actually useless to hold any belief fervently—everyone is just as right as everyone else; everyone is just as wrong as everyone else.

Chapter 10: Some Thoughts on Art
Art is an area that many consider to be quite subjective. Chapter 10 addresses the ideas that beauty is objective and that art may be able to inform man about what is objectively true. McAndrew shows some connections between the current philosophy of art and the philosophy of truth—are things beautiful because society tells one it is beautiful or because one has an innate idea of what is beautiful?

Chapter 11: Final Thoughts
The conclusion of the book is not the typical summary of the content, rather it is a call to action. McAndrew clearly does not what the reader to simply use the content of his book for additional "head-knowledge". He wants the readers to take the new knowledge they have gained. He challenges them to resist holding contradicting beliefs, to examine ideas thoroughly, to see where idea logically end, and to be willing to be wrong about truth, but be willing to change it to coincide with reality.

Reviewer ThoughtsWhy It Doesn't Matter What YOU Believe If It’s Not True is a very thoughtful writing. McAndrew is extremely succinct in his presentation. This book may be short in length, but it is not short on thought-provoking content. This reviewer can see this book being used effectively for small groups of beginners to the philosophical concepts of truth or morality. Because of its short length, it is also highly recommended to keep copies on hand for giving to people who may be curious but don't want to invest too much time in the subject... yet.

Apologetics 315 Book Reviewer Luke Nix is a Computer Systems Administrator in Oklahoma, USA. He has a beautiful and supportive wife, but no kids yet. In his spare time he enjoys studying theology, philosophy, biology, astronomy, psychology and apologetics. If you liked this review, more of his writing can be enjoyed at lukenixblog.blogspot.com.

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To make something simple does not mean it is simplistic. Cudos to McAndrew and your fine review. Here are a few thoughts from a few years ago: http://warpandwoof.org/biblical-theological/the-s-p-u-d-test/